When Steve Jobs stepped on to the podium on Monday, dressed in customary black sweater and jeans, to proclaim that he is about to shift the hub of one?s digital life to the cloud, it was yet another ?A-ha? moment from the technology master. The iCloud is the latest buzzword and this time Jobs is targeting the humble personal computer, a device he himself popularised 30 years ago with the revered Mac. Sure, every product has a shelf-life but Jobs seems to be in a hurry to bury the PC. ?Let?s demote it,? he says. He wants the PC to be something like an iPad or iPhone?just another device.
Let?s examine what the iCloud can do for mankind. Primarily, it will help the various Apple devices harmonise stuff like your mail, contacts, calendar, songs, photos and various other apps. It will enable you to share files across a spectrum of the various Internet-linked devices. Apple can now store files in the cloud, which is essentially a remote data centre. The same content can be accessed from any Apple gadget, thus freeing up the consumer?s hard drive. iCloud will automatically store on Apple?s servers any new files that a person loads on to a Mac, iPad or iPhone. And the service is free.
A good chunk of Apple?s effort has gone into eliminating the need for customers to plug in their devices into a computer for receiving updates. But with the advent of the iCloud the devices can synchronise wirelessly and can eliminate the need for a PC.
The service will pack in 5 gigabytes of free storage, and also plenty of space for purchased apps and photos. Quite obviously, this is a milestone in computing; a killer deal that can put the PC on the ventilator.
The development will also threaten Microsoft and its Windows software?not to mention HP, Dell and other PC makers. Jobs seems to be gaining more aggression with age. Already, Apple has given ample trouble to PC makers. The company has sold some 25 million iPad tablets since launch and PC sales have dropped consequently. ?If you don?t think we are serious about this, you are wrong,? Jobs warns. Not that the industry needs any more warnings from Apple! Since the various Internet services that Apple has introduced will only work with its own mobile devices, consumers are now likely to buy multiple Apple devices.
Without a doubt, tablets, smart-phones and e-Readers have also affected PC growth, and Goldman Sachs believes tablets will displace one in three PC sales in 2011. While sales numbers for the iPad have always been encouraging, overall demand for both PCs and tablet computers has been on the decline. Research firm IDC has lowered its expectations for PC and tablet sales for this year and beyond. Consumer PC shipments declined by 4.4% during the first quarter of this year compared with last year, and the trend is likely to continue in the second quarter as well.
Sales of tablet computers, too, have declined by about 10% since early March, with only the iPad flying off the shelves. The Android-based Motorola Xoom tablet has had poor sales, and Samsung?s Galaxy Tab and RIM?s Playbook have not fired up the stores either, according to a JP Morgan report. PC growth is also being hampered by sluggish pace of growth in the commercial sector, with events like the Japanese earthquake and political uprisings in the Middle East disrupting the flow.
The fall in PC shipments is more pronounced in the advanced markets of Western Europe and the US, where it is projected that there will be a 10.3% decline in PC shipments. It is clear that the PC makers now have got to wake up to the threat. They need to think ?innovation?. Come next year, features like touchscreen options, longer battery life and thinner and lighter designs are scheduled to sweep into the market to inject some fresh bit of excitement. IDC projects the overall PC share of mature markets will increase to 7.8% in 2012, with emerging markets recording a 12.2% growth. But Steve Jobs has just thrown a new spanner in the works.
dj.hector@expressindia.com